The Department of Government Efficiency
More often than not, I write this cynical and often sarcastic blog to complain about inefficient and counterproductive government regulation. So, when an incoming President announces a new initiative to have a federal department to be jointly headed by billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy expressly focused on eliminating government waste and inefficiency[1], I take serious note. Even my own brother (who is not in the consumer finance business at all) was curious about what I thought of this unconventional and bold plan to limit and improve our federal government.
So, today I am getting a head start on Trump 2.0 by writing about the unseriously serious Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.). D.O.G.E. is a play on the Dogecoin, which, according to Wikipedia, is
“a cryptocurrency created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a joke, making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time. It is considered both the first "meme coin", and more specifically the first "dog coin".
The value of the Dogecoin rises and falls with the whims and statements of Mr. Musk. So, we start with the name of this agency being a play on a joke[2]. But the Dogecoin rallied heavily upon the announcement of this new D.O.G.E. federal department.
Should I apply for a job?
To start, based on what I have heard so far, while it appears I might be highly qualified to work for D.O.G.E., I am not quite ready to enlist and give up my day job. Specifically, Musk has said he is seeking “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.” Disappointingly, the job would also be unpaid. Makes me wonder what in the heck an IQ test measures if you are someone who is willing to work 80 weeks for free?[3] Surely, they can’t be serious.
I don’t know about IQ, but, seriously, I consider myself a small government revolutionary and can work 80-hour weeks, so check and check there. Meanwhile, excuse me for not being a billionaire entrepreneur able to send people to Mars or develop life-saving biotechnologies, but, with my priors, personally, I can’t imagine anything more glamorous than having the authority to identify and cut wasteful and inefficient government regulations and spending.
Unglamorous work, ha!
In fact, if they think making government better is “unglamorous”, these are totally unserious people who are the wrong people to be running D.O.G.E. Give me the very glamorous power and resources to axe inefficient regulatory burdens (such as getting rid of the LO Comp Rule or retracting the 2023 RESPA Advisory Opinion or even just reforming RESPA to recognize 21st Century technology and markets) and I’ll do it in a tuxedo (wearing cologne) just to illustrate the serious glamour I see in that job. But I can't afford to work for free, I've got bills to pay. Why are these guys being so silly with such a critcally important topic?[4]
MTG isn't short for mortgage
Unfortunately, virtually everything about this new federal advisory panel demands that it not be taken seriously. To demonstrate the point, a most serious member of Congress, the “notorious” MTG[5] got herself selected as chair of the Congressional D.O.G.E. oversight subcommittee. As if having Musk and Ramaswamy wasn’t already overachieving, thank goodness now Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene also will also be able to balance the right amount of intelligence, realism (and glamor) to assure D.O.G.E.’s efforts have the kind of DC
administrative law respectability needed to accomplish meaningful regulatory changes.[6]
Who are the lawyers behind this?
Speaking of administrative law, I’m not sure which lawyers are advising Musk and Ramaswamy,[7] but it appears they are reading the administrative law changes initiated by the Supreme Court in the last term in an overly expansive fashion. In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Musk and Ramaswamy had this to say about how D.O.G.E. intends to use those cases in the Trump 2.0 administration,
“DOGE will present this list of regulations to President Trump, who can, by executive action, immediately pause the enforcement of those regulations and initiate the process for review and rescission.”
I’m all for regulatory reform and rescission of bad regulations, but those cases did not give the President the unfettered power to get rid of any regulations by “executive action”. I also mention again that many regulatory interpretations are helpful to the mortgage industry and getting rid of those helpful interpretations could expose the mortgage industry to other perils.[8] That said, much of the CFPB’s misguided regulatory interpretation was done without full Administrative Procedure Act process and those kinds of interpretive “regulation by enforcement” efforts can be undone as easily as they were produced[9] by a differently inclined CFPB director without the need for another department like D.O.G.E. to tell them how to do it.
Wait and see, I guess
I really don't know if D.O.G.E. is going to be a game changer or a paper tiger, but if they are serious about needing a list of mortgage regulations to review and rescind (but don’t want to pay anyone to produce the list) they can start by reading and signing up for these Musings. Or maybe, as Musk recently suggested, just get rid of the CFPB entirely. That seems seriously easy enough.
[1]Ah, the ironic inefficiency in having two heads instead of one.
[2]The “first” dog coin?!! Like, what, there are more dog coins??? I just figured out what cryptocurrency is and now I need to find out what a dog coin is?
[3]Moreover, potential applicants are being instructed to send their resumes to the D.O.G.E. account on "X" via direct message. Only premium subscribers are able to send DMs to the D.O.G.E. account. So, you’ve got to sign up for a monthly subscription fee to apply for a job that pays you nothing. Brilliant.
[4] On the other hand, who am I to accuse someone of being silly with an important topic?
[5] This is not an abbreviation for “mortgage”.
[6]For starters, let’s once and for all cancel the Jewish space laser program that controls the weather and starts forest fires. It doesn’t seem to be working well in any event.
[7]“Lawyers? We don’t need no stinkin’ lawyers!” Uh, yeah, you might need some lawyers becuase there is actually a law that says the fedreal government can't let you work for free.
[8]Again, CFPB has the power to create RESPA exemptions and to facilitate mortgage brokering, they should create one for licensed (or exempt) lender to lender referrals-just like the exemption for realtor to realtor referrals. Approved housing counselors too.
[9]Actually, it depends on the nature of the interpretation. The 2023 RESPA Advisory Opinion, for example, appeared to contain a lot thought and effort despite its incorrect conclusion. Other interpretations, like the added fair lending analysis to the UDAAP regulatory exam manual, seemed to lack much forethought.
Brian Levy is an attorney with Katten & Temple, LLP licensed in Illinois and Wisconsin who writes the free Levy’s Mortgage Musings blog available at www.mortgagemusings.com. Mr. Levy can be reached by email at blevy@kattentemple.com. Mr. Levy’s blog is copyrighted and presented by Chrisman Commentary with permission. All rights are reserved.